ABSTRACT
The case studies and conceptual approaches presented in this book demonstrate a large variety of complex challenges and structural deficits (see also Anríquez and Stamoulis, 2007; Sedlacek et al., 2009) that exist for rural areas in an era of fluctuating local and global dynamics. However, the studies also reveal a fresh variety of options and strategies for regional actors and stakeholders to cope with these challenges and, in some cases, to develop proactive approaches for economic and regional development and to overcome or prevent a negative cumulative process of increasing structural deficits (as outlined e.g. by Wießner, 1999).
